Madness in reserve....

49.5%reservation in educational institutions at grad n postgrad level for SC/ST/OBC candidates... have these politicians gone CRAZY????? higher education should be based SOLELY on merit.... n how the hell can u ask a student who can barely speak english to take the same exam as the other kids in IITs?????what this country desperately needs is more schols- primary , secondary n higher...... reserving seats will just create problems
what i ask is... if the oppression has been unfair on the backward classes.... isnt his large scale reservation at these levels unfair towards the general students???? besides that... the concept of the "creamy layer" absorbing all benefits has already been discussed ad nauseum by journalists n general public alike...
if someone is rich enough to put their child through school... and the child intelligent enough to aspire for a seat at IIT or IIM or AIIMS etc... then they can DEFINITELY compete with the general category students in the merit based examz... n if someone simply is'nt bright enough.. they don't deserve a seat in the first place....

there has been a hunger strike on by students of medical colleges in delhi for the past 100 hours ... the news doing the rounds is that 94 students have collapsed due to hunger n heat... there was also a demnstartion by DU students today at India Gate... strikes and demonstrations... mostly by medical students have been goin on all over the country since these reservations were announced....

some people may argue that these reservations are necesary for the upliftment of the downtrodden... to giv ethe ones who have been cut out of society for centuries a level palying field.... but really... does a 'level' playing field mean giving the right of way to those who can't even use it???? most reserved seats in colleges according to news reports go unfilled... specially in the high standard institutions such as the IITs n IIMs etc.... most of those students who do join these colleges... even the regular BA Honours courses at "normal" colleges.. have to face numerous problems... and a large number simply drop out after a yr or two.. or worse... fail.. isnt that a total waste of time, effort and money??? both for the govt and the student??? and what about the general catewgory students who belong to economically weak families???? how are they supposed to compete with the rich students who can pay their way through private colleges AND the reserved category ones who just get in to the college without their merit being of consideration...

to empower these sections of society what we need is rise in quality and availability of basic school education... without that, these reservations are totally useless..

the govt is now announcing its intention of increasing the number of seats available in the various institutions... despite the ground realities that the student:teacher ratio in most colleges is already very high.. infrastructure such as hostels, books, computers, funds for research etc are already low...increasing the number of seats will drastically cut down the quality of education in these colleges.. all this has been pointed out in numerous articles, by various academicians, administrators of the colleges as well as journalists.. hasnt the govt noticed yet???

shouldnt the level of acheivement depend on the amount of work u put in???? merit should be the sloe consideration for admittance into an educational institution... and to enable that.. we need more schools and schoolteachers who actually teach... reservation is not the right way to change their fortunes...